Before we fix health care, we need to focus on our food

The national debate on health care is moving into a new,
hopefully bipartisan phase.

The fundamental underlying challenge
iscost– the massive and
ever-rising price of care which drives nearly all disputes, from
access to benefit levels to Medicaid expansion.

So far, policymakers have tried to reduce costs by tinkering with
how care is delivered. But focusing on care delivery to save
money is like trying to reduce the costs of house fires by
focusing on firefighters and fire stations.

A more natural question should be: What drives poor health in the
U.S., and what can be done about it?

We know the answer. Food isthe
number one causeof poor health in America.
As a cardiologist and public health scientist, I have studied
nutrition science and policy for 20 years. Poor diet is not just
about individual choice, but about the systems that make eating
poorly the default for most Americans.

If we want to cut down on disease and achieve meaningful health
care reform, we should make it a top nonpartisan priority to
address our nation’s nutrition crisis.

For example, our recent research estimated that poor diet
causesnearly
halfof all U.S. deaths due to heart
disease, stroke and diabetes.

There are almost 1,000 deaths from these causes alone, every day.

By combining national data on demographics, eating habits and
disease rates with empirical evidence on how specific foods are
linked to health, we found that most of problems are caused by
too few healthy foods like fruits and vegetables and too much
salt, processed meats, red meats and sugary drinks.